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Acting Surveyor
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The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, NOVEMBER 4TH, 81.
LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE.
Yesterday afternoon the foundation stone of the new building for St. Joseph's College was laid by His Excellency the Governor, The site is on the upper part of the Glenealy estate, and a short distance below Robinson road. Plans and drawings of the proposed building were exhibited on the ground. On the first floor there are seven class rooms and a parlour; there are six more class rooms in the basement, dining room and offices, and the upper floor is occupied by bedrooms, etc. The drawings show that externally the building will be of handsome appearance, and it will form a striking object both from the harbour and Robinson-road. The length is 152 feet and the breadth 25 feet with verandahs 8 feet wide on each side.
The pupils of the school were drawn up in line to receive his Excellency the Governor, who was accompanied by Lady Hennessy and the Hon. Hugh Low. There were also present on the ground Colonel Hall, R.A., Hon. M. S. Tonnochy, Acting Colonial Secretary, Hon. H. R. Belilios, Captain Bury. Acting Assistant Military Secretary. Dr. Eitel, Private Secretary, Lieut. Cox. A.D.C., Mr. Romano, Mr. Loureiro, Mr. Wodehouse, and a considerable assemblage of the general public.
Father BURGUIGNOLI, Pro. Vicar-Apostolic. said-Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen, I will not detain you with many words to-day, first of all, because it is only by chance I occupy the position I do. The credit of this work does not belong to me, but entirely to Bishop Raimondi, while as for myself I have simply to execute his plans and carry out his views and orders. That we now stand here on this site, on which very soon a nice building will be erected by the skill of our worthy architect. Mr. Danby, is due solely to the energy of our Bishop, and I fancy his own heart will tell him something about this. You know very well why we are gathered here, so it is not necessary for me to say much. Your presence here is a great comfort to me. I know the carrying out of our undertaking will be a great task, but the presence of such a large assemblage is a great consolation to me, as it guarantees that support without which I would be afraid some day to hear the saying, "This man commenced to build and was unable to finish the work." But that shall not be so. This is the site of our third college in Hongkong. The first was built purposely for the college; it lasted about ten years and was given up simply because it was too small. We had only two school rooms there and as the community was increasing the number of boys also increased every day, so we were obliged to go into the house which we occupied until quite lately. But that house was not built for the purpose and it was also found, like the other, to be too small. Now we stand here to-day to commence a new building, and this college will not be too small; it will be large enough to accommodate all our boys, and even more if they wish to come, as I hope they will. I hope this college will prosper, and the foundation stone being laid by your Excellency is a pledge of its success. I have now only to ask your Excellency to be so good as to lay the foundation stone.
His EXCELLENCY said,Ladies and gentlemen, the especial interest which the Government has in the proceedings of to-day consists in the fact that this is what is called a grant-in-aid school, that is, it is a school towards the support of which the Government gives a grant.
When I came to the Colony in 1877, there were in the Colony a certain number of Grant-in-aid schools. Last year the number of such schools was double that which I found here in 1877, and the number of pupils had also doubled. How is that to be accounted for? It is really due to the fact that Her Majesty's Government, since the year 1877, have altered the principles upon which the grant-in-aid schools in this Colony are supported. When I arrived here, I found the school referred to by Father Burguignoli in existence, the predecessor of this school, but though that school had at that time about 200 boys in attendance, the sons of European residents in the Colony, the sons of ratepayers of the Colony, nevertheless, the school was receiving no grant-in-aid. I also found that schools of other denominations were similarly situated. It was represented to me by Pastor Klitzke and Rev. Louis, of the Berlin Mission, that their schools were receiving no Government aid. The late Colonial Chaplain, Mr. Kidd. also represented to me that he could not conscientiously accept the Government grant-in-aid, and the very same reason which influenced Bishop Raimondi in declining to receive that grant, also influenced the other gentlemen whom I have named. The consequence was that in all the Government grant-in-aid schools in this Colony, there were but eighty pupils, children of the foreign residents of Hongkong, enjoying the benefit of Government aid. Well, in this school alone, we have now over 200, and the change was effected by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Her Majesty's Secretary of State, by simply striking out of the grant-in-aid scheme as it then existed the word "secular," and the word "elementary." In 1877, it was a rule that no school could get a Government grant in which the school books were not secular books, and in which a certain portion of the day's instruction, a considerable portion, was not devoted to secular teaching only. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach considered carefully the representations of Bishop Raimondi, of the Lutheran clergymen who had addressed me, and also of the Chaplain of the Church of England, and he resolved to strike out the word "secular" from the grant-in-aid scheme. That decision of Her Majesty's Government was not given hastily, nor without fully considering the question. It so happened that at the time when I forwarded the various papers for the consideration of the Government, I was able to inform the Secretary of State that Dr. Stewart, who had been for years a most zealous and able advocate of the secular system, would himself proceed to London, and could explain on behalf of those who wished for a purely secular system of Government aid, his views and the views of those whom he represented. Those views were carefully considered. Dr. Stewart, in a long letter addressed to the Under Secretary at the Colonial Office, pointed out that in his opinion, if the word "secular " were struck out of the grant-in-aid scheme, it would be the abandonment of the whole principle of education which was then in vogue in Hongkong. Nevertheless, having considered the question carefully, Her Majesty's Government resolved to strike out the word "secular," and to-day I am about to lay the foundation stone of a school receiving Government aid now to the amount of about $1,400, but which did not receive a single farthing of Government aid when I arrived in the Colony, and that school will also receive under the regulations framed by the Secretary of State a considerable sum towards the building of the school,—Applause.) I must say, gentlemen, I think the decision of Her Majesty's Government was in every sense a wise decision, it was strongly in favour of freedom of religion, because thus we allow, in every school in the colony. the teachers to bring up the boys as they think fit, to give them whatever amount of religious knowledge they may choose to teach in connection with other subjects. The final examination is conducted by independent examiners under Government inspection and that examination is made in subjects which are selected by the Government, and upon the results of that best examination
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